Apparently, WiFi does not just let you get connected to the outside world. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have figured out how to turn your everyday WiFi router into a low-key body scanner that can track your movements—even through walls. Yes, your router might now be able to “see” you flop onto the couch without ever using a camera or spending LiDAR-level money.
The team tapped into radio signals bouncing around a room to map out human shapes and motions in 3D. No RGB cameras. No infrared. Just good ol’ WiFi waves doing the surveillance work. Well, this does sound like a “yikes” to me because it could be abused by people with ill intentions.
They used something called DensePose — a creepy-sounding but legit tool from Facebook’s AI lab—to pinpoint key parts of the human body. In the demo, they used three budget-friendly WiFi routers (about $30 a pop) paired with three receivers to pull this off. The system ignores static stuff and locks onto reflections from moving objects, kind of like a DIY radar with a PhD.
In theory, this setup can track people through drywall, concrete, or whatever else you’re hiding behind. Naturally, this raises some privacy questions—because nothing screams “cozy home” like your router watching your every stretch, yawn, and hallway shuffle. This isn’t new news. The tech is several years old, as indicated in the video below, and Carnegie Mellon researchers have revealed updates in 2023. So this news is, well, two years late. I hope no one is already using it to spy on us.
Images: Carnegie Mellon University.
